Sword Art Online Alternative
by Emma Hiiragi
Summary: November 6th was where it all began for me and my brother Makoto. Us, together with 10,000 fellow VRMMORPG players, as well as our cousin Asuna, was unable to log out of the newest game that just had come out on the market, Sword Art Online or SAO for short. How are we going to get out of this? Will we ever see our parents again? Would we even find love in the death game?
1. Chapter 1

"Done! I'm gonna get going to get my copy of SAO!" said the girl with her hair tied in the back with a red ribbon said out loud as she had slammed her empty glass on the table before smiling at her twin brother, who sat next to her at the table, sipping his cup of téa, as he just softly smiled at his sister.

"Hinata, there is no need to be in a rush. Just take your time, also be happy that dad sat in the pre-order for you, since you did help me with the Beta version." The twin said, before taking another sip of his cup as he pushed his glasses back a bit. Hinata just giggled playfully.

"Makoto, if I didn't ask you, to help you then I wouldn't be this hyped! That's why I'm kinder rushing!" Hinata just continued to giggle, whilst her brother, Makoto just chuckled.

"You really want to play this game, huh Hinata?" Makoto asked Hinata nodded while saying "mmhmm".

"Of course, I was so lucky to try the Beta version with your account and we took notes of it which you have memorized like a madman. I can't still believe today is the day for the full release of Sword Art Online!" She joyously squealed, as she came back downstairs to get her shoes on. "I'm still quite surprised myself since we somewhat never played the same type of games with each other when we were younger." Makoto gave a soft smile to her as he was ever so sincere for her help with the Beta version. While she was still taking her shoes on in the hall.

"We rarely do get to spend much time together, so this might be the best chance we get..." He said as he looked at Hinata who was done getting her shoes on "Especially with you working at dad's branch of uncle Shouzou's company and me almost getting ready for college." Hinata then looked off in thought.

They both were quiet for about a minute before Makoto cleared his throat getting his sisters attention "so your copy of SAO?", "right!? right!? I'll get going. See you in a bit Makoto" Hinata gets up to her feet and gets out of the door. With that, Makoto waved bye to her. As she continued down the path until she reached the train station, to get to the station that is not too far from the store that's going to open its doors to sell SAO. It didn't take her long just about a ten-minute train ride or so and added with the walk she had to take to get to the store which in total took her about thirty minutes to reach it, and she could see a huge line of people that went to around the corner "that's a lot of people..." she said while looking a bit surprised.

She was about to join the line of people when a work-member of the store called out to her "Mrs. Yuuki? there is no need for you to join that huge line. Come on in and get your order", " but what about everyone else?" Hinata asked looking from the line to the worker "they'll get theirs after you get yours, Mrs." Hinata didn't say anything after that she just followed the worker to the door and walked into the store while faintly hearing some people yelling "no fair!" and "let us in!".

After only a few minutes she came out with her NervGear and copy of SAO, and as she was walking back to the station she quietly talked to herself "I hate being treated like I can get everything I want, right in front of others who aren't as lucky as me..." she sighed "all I want is to be seen like everyone else...normal...". Once she got home, her brother and her, got everything set up, register the account "that should be everything, Hinata." said Makoto with a nod to each other, Makoto headed to his room to log-in and Hinata getting her NervGear on and getting ready to log-in, she could hear her brother shout from his room "I'll be waiting for you in the Plaza of the Town of Beginners for you!". She shouted back to him "okay!" as she lays down on her bed with her NervGear on, she takes a few deep breaths calming herself down and closing her eyes, before saying or shouting "Link Start!".

Before she knew it, she had entered the game world of Sword Art Online.

* * *

Hinata slowly opened her eyes, blinking softly as her name and Health bar stood in corner of her vision, she then looked around to the familiar world she had seen a few times, before looking down to her hand, curling her hand into a fist and looking up with a bright smile.

"This is going to be awesome!" She said while looking up at the game generated sky with a smile.

* * *

After walking around for a bit taking a look at herself, her hair was shorter and it was wavy, and it had changed color to brown then her mahogany red, but it still had her iconic red ribbon. That she and her family knew her well for. Until she felt a tap on her shoulder and turned around being greeted by a bit taller boy with looks that can only be described as a Shoujo Manga male lead look, looks that can put any other guy to shame in that category. Wearing a pair of glasses to boot.

"Hinata?" Hinata blinked a few times in confusion but recognizing the style of glasses "M-Makoto?", he nodded "what's with the bishounen look?" she asked trying to hold in a tiny laugh. He pushed his glasses back while trying to look cocky to her "perks of a VR game, sis" they both laughed in unison, after a few minutes of talking together Makoto help her to buy the necessary stuff to start out with. That being potions and two weapons that she had her eyes on mastering, Rapier, and One-Handed Dagger. Since Makoto wanted to show her the robs of SAO.

* * *

They headed out the first floor, Town of Beginnings, West Field. To train and level up, Makoto got to level 3 while Hinata got to level 2. They decided to take walk in the field until they heard grunt scream and headed over to the sound where they saw two players, one holding himself between his legs, he had long red almost purple like hair with a red bandana tied around his forehead, and the other one standing there, whose color scheme were all blue, being a bit disappointed over the player on the ground.

"That guy is clearly showing the other one the robs." said Makoto feeling the non-existing pain that player got "hit" with. After a few second the one player who got hit between his legs was standing ready and activating his sword skill, it seemed to go by in a flash he dashed forward to hit the wild boar and it shattered into many pieces. "Wow~" came from Hinata, her eyes sparkling in awe from that bandana wearing player show off his sword skill, a jokingly chuckle came from her brother "falling in love, are we now, Hinata?" she turned to him "what no way a guy with long hair like is not my type!? Come on let's continue the training." she said in a huff while walking past her brother.

Over the next several hours they leveled up pretty much up to where they had set their level quota, Hinata at level 9 and Makoto were lucky enough to get to level 11 while their quota was level 10. They were going to log-out of the game to eat dinner with their parents when...

"What in the? where is the log-out button?" said they both looking at each other until it looked like they "disappeared" from each others view, before reappearing in the Town of Beginnings. With more and more people being forcefully teleported into the area, Hinata frantically looked around for her brother but could not see him, she began pushing past people trying to find him.

"Mako-" She was cut off by the area turning red with announcement banners, she looked up to see a cloaked figure appear almost as if they were formed from blood dripping through the announcement banners.

"Attention players." The figure spoke "I welcome you to my world"

"Is that the game master?" Hinata whispered on her breath watching in shock. As he continued to talk "My name is Kayaba Akihiko, and as of this moment, I control this world." He said, "I'm sure most of you have already noticed, and Item missing from your menu use, the log out button."

Hinata didn't know what to do other than find her brother and find a safe place for now until they could come up with a plan.

"Let me assure you, this is not a defect of the game. I repeat this is not a defect." He said pulling up the menu and began to click on things. "This is how Sword Art Online was designed to be, You cannot log yourself out of SAO, and no one from the outside world are able to shut down or remove the nerve gear from your head, if anyone attempts to do so, a transmitter inside the nerve gear will transmit a signal into your skull, destroying your brain and ending your life. I have given two hours for your bodies to be moved to a stable location before the system will send this signal."

"No..." Hinata held her hand to her chest, Makoto running through her mind; she needed to make sure he is safe.

"Despite my warning, the family and friends of some of the players attempted removing the nerve gear, an unfortunate decision to say the least." The game master spoke again, "As a result, the game now has Two hundred and thirteen players less than when it began." Hinata's heart stopped briefly, "They have been deleted from both Aincrad and the real world, as you can see, inter-dimensional media around the clock coverage of everything, including the deaths. At this point, it's safe to say, to assume the likelihood of the nerve gear being removed is minimal at best, I hope this brings you a little comfort as you try to clear the game. It is important that you remember the following: There is no longer any way to revive someone within the game, if your HP drops to Zero your avatar will be deleted from the system forever, and the nerve gear will simultaneously destroy your brain." Hinata's heart stopped once again but for a brief moment. "There is only one way for a player to escape now, you must clear the game. Right now you are gathered on floor one, the lowest level of Aincrad, if you can get through the dungeon and defeat the boss, you may advance to the next floor, and defeat the boss of floor one hundred and you will clear the game. Last but not least, I have placed a little present in the item storage of every player. Please, have a look."

Like the other players, Hinata opened her item storage to see the new item before clicking it, and a hand-held mirror forming in her hands.

"A mirror?" She questioned, there was a bright light reflected from every mirror of the players, and slowly their avatars began to change. Hinata looked down at her reflection only to see her brown hair reverted back to its mahogany red color and her eyes back to their hazel. "What the..." She looked around in hopes to see a person with the same color hair as her, but was not successful; players began to panic and comment on their appearance.

. "Right now, you're probably thinking _why_. Why would Kayaba Akihiko, developer of Sword Art Online and NervGear do this? Ultimately my goal was a simple one, the reason I created Sword Art Online was to control the fate of a world of my own design. As you can see, I have achieved my goal. This marks the end of the tutorial and the official launch of Sword Art Online. Players I wish you the best of luck." With that, he disappeared once again through the blood-like way in the System announcement banners, which slowly started to disappear

Hinata began frantically turning her head in hopes to find her brother but was cut off by screaming and crying of other players who began to panic, she was pushed and tussled by players trying to leave in a hurry. Hinata followed in suit and pushed through the people, shouting for her brothers' name in hopes he would hear her. Pushing people out the way she managed to escape to a little clearing amongst all of the people, looking back she noticed a familiar long, orange-brownish chestnut hair color running down her way "Asuna? What are doing here?" she shouted to her, Asuna stopped and looked at her "H-Hinata?" she asked and Hinata nodded "why are you here, Asuna wasn't it Kouichirou who bought the game?".

Asuna explained herself to Hinata that she wanted to only borrow it for a short while but she didn't expect to be trapped in here. "Whatever is going to happen Asuna, we gotta find Makoto first then find a safe place for tonight before anything else, okay?" said Hinata while holding on to Asuna's hand. They added each other to there friend list, so if they were far away from each other, they will message each other to meet up if either of them would find Makoto.

* * *

They would split up and look for Makoto, as Hinata was running down a street she wasn't really looking where she was running and ran into someone, with herself landing on her butt "aweei~" when she opened her eyes, she saw a hand stretch out to her. She looked up who the owner was and was greeted with a familiar red bandana but this time with spiky reddish hair "hey are you okay?" he asked, Hinata grabbed on to his hand as he helped her on her feet "y-yeah I'm fine and I'm sorry running into you", "Nah it's fine I was in a bit of a rush myself, I'm Klein and you?". She replied "I'm Hinata" Klein smiled before continuing on his "well I'll see another time, it was nice meeting you, Hinata" as he waved goodbye to her, "yeah" as she waved back to him. Seeing him disappear down the streets.

At that moment she got a message from Asuna saying that she found Makoto and to meet with them at the "Tolbana Inn" so after replying to it, she began to run too the Inn which didn't take her long to get there. Once she got there she immediately hugged her brother "oh thank goodness you are okay, Makoto", "of course, I would never leave you, Hinata". They talked about a plan to survive this game, Makoto suggested getting going to the next town over to maybe get better gear and some more money since now this was a serious situation, Asuna was reluctant to go, she wanted to stay behind to which they understood her feelings, Makoto and Asuna had added each other in their friends list to keep in touch with each other. Both Hinata and her brother would get to the next to with any trouble while gaining Cor and items on the way they wanted to survive, they wanted to get out of the game, they wanted to live.

Because now...

The game had started.


	2. Chapter 2

Walking down the bricked road streets of Town of Beginnings, holding bags of a few items. Like food, cloths items, and potions, it felt like hours had gone by, but in truth, she had only walked for about one hour. Until she reached the Plaza and she didn't really notice the others players around her while remembering the first day of this death game and it's now been a week since then.

She sighed before looking up at the game sky, her face looked sad beyond a few words while saying quietly to herself "Mom...Dad...Don't worry we'll be back, promise...". She continued on her way back to the Inn that her, her brother and cousin were staying at. She bumped into someone and without any thought, she said "I'm sorry" and continued on her way. Once at the Inn bumps into another person and sends her on her butt "dang it, this is the second time today I bump into someone...", "oh shoot I'm so sorry about that. Here let me help you up, huh Hinata?" said a familiar voice to Hinata, she looked up to the owner of the voice and saw "Klein?" they stare at each other for a few before Hinata took ahold on Kleins' reached out hand "thank you, Klein and again sorry for bumping into you, for the second time..." she chuckled Klein shook his head "Nah don't think about, I was just on my way to meet up with some of my friends. We were thinking of working to start up our own guild", "a guild?" she asked still holding her bag of items as she tilted her head in curiosity.

Klein blinked twice "you've never heard of guilds before?" he asked looking a bit confused at her, she nodded "yeah despite I've played RPG's before, I've never stumble upon the idea of making your own guild?" then Klein would explain that he and friends been a guild in different game before SAO and wanted to make another one but they wanted to know how the guild system worked in SAO.

* * *

After the explanation, he asked her if it were if they could hang out even if it were for a little bit. Hinata was cautious about it but he assured her that he wanted to get to know her even if they didn't know each other that well. She felt like with how honest he was with her, she didn't have to be worried about if he was going to kill her, it was like he had this gentle warmth about him and his goofy smile. They agreed to hang out together around the time in the afternoon just before the sun would set. They would wave goodbye to each other as Hinata would proceed to get into the inn where her brother and Asuna was waiting "sorry that I made you guys wait" she said to them as she walked over "Nah it's fine Hinata, we weren't waiting that long, right Asuna?" Makoto asked Asuna as he looked over at her, she nodded and replied; "yeah, so it's fine, Hinata.".

Hinata got the items out of the bag "this should be everything to keep us going for some time, are you sure that you don't wanna join us?" she looked at Asuna, she looked down and answered quietly "yeah I'm sure..." Hinata was a bit sadden by Asuna's choice she wasn't mad about it, she put her hands on top of Asuna's, smiled gently at her and said; "just remember Asuna, if there anything you need help with, just message Makoto or me, okay?" Asuna looked at Hinata a surprised but smiled back to her and nodded "sure thing, Hinata". Her brother and she would go out to the field to level up some more which seemed to go smoothly until they heard a pair of voices screaming, they looked at each other and nodded before turning their heads to the directions of the voices and ran to give a helping hand "Makoto if those players are low level we gotta beat whatever monster, that's attacking them!" yelled Hinata to her brother as they were running "yeah but remember to stay behind me, Hinata since your levels are still lower than mine so we gotta be careful!" that being true, Makoto had been leveling like a little crazy, his level was 26Lvl. and hers were barely anywhere near 26, being 22Lvl.

But despite her level, she can stand her ground for some time before doing what her brother has told her, "Makoto is really going all in, just to protect me and everyone else..." she thought as they ran. Upon getting there they saw two players, a boy, and a girl. They were being attacked by a tiny hoard of monsters, they were doing their best to stand their ground but Hinata could have sworn she heard there being said; "we got to do something or we are dead, Asagawa!" that name sounded familiar to the twins but now was not the time ideally think of the past right now, for right now it was time to fight, to survive.

* * *

Their weapons clashed and hit the monsters, pushing them back they road at us. They quickly helped the players back on to their feet "don't worry, we got you guys covered" said Hinata as she quickly held her sword, ready to strick the monsters again. The player, who they heard being called Asagawa looked at Hinata as if she had seen her before. Hinata covered the left side while her brother covered the right side, the monsters numbers dwindled as well as a bit of Hinata and Makoto's HP bar, Makoto called "Hinata get back!" out to his sister to step back and let him handle the remaining ones while Hinata took the two players a good distance away from the monsters. And before they knew it, Makoto had come back and over to them "here, heal up" said Hinata handing her brother an HP potion, before he took a sip of the potion he looked at the two players with a serious look in his eyes, the guy looked back at Makoto almost like he wanted to punch Makoto in the face "do you two have any idea on what could have happened if we didn't show up?", "like I care dude. We can handle this game, our selves!" the boy shouted back. Makoto would be in an argument all the way back into town until the girl called out to the boy "Touma, that's enough!", "Asagawa, I told you in here my name is Touya!". The girl, Asagawa walked up to the boy, Touma and slapped him across his face "if Hinata and her brother, Makoto hadn't come and saved us we would have been dead! Is that hard to understand!" Asagawa shouted looking Touma straight in the face with tears rolling down her cheeks, and right there it was if a light bulb lit up in her head, Hinata knew who the girl was "Aki...? Aki Asagawa?" Aki turned to look Hinata in the face and nodded firmly yet gently "yeah it's me, your biggest bully of the past, but I...actually wanted to talk to you about how I, some of our classmates and Touma treated you back then...".

They all found a set of benches to sit on and they apologize for what they did in the past, well Touma was a little bit reluctant to apologize but he did anyway. Aki looked over at Hinata "Hey Hinata, I'm sorry for all the things I did back in Middle and High school it was really mean of me to pick on you...I guess I was just a bit jealous as all...", Hinata tilted her head and asked "how?", Aki sighed before looking up at the in-game sky "jealous on your relationship with your brother Makoto and how happy your family is...Compared to mine...yours is happy, always there for each other and there for other people too..." it was true because, in the real world, Aki family was distant either working many hours and coming home late or just coming home and sitting there not talking to each other nor to Aki, which resulted in Aki moving in with her Grandmother on her mother's side. "Aki...once we get out of here we'll try and fix everything with your family, I promise..." Hinata said with a smile growing on her lips.

"By the way what time is it?" asked Hinata looking over at her brother, Makoto looking at the sky "I'm guessing around 5 o'clock..." he looked back to his sister and asked, "why?" Hinata frantically getting up from her seat on the bench "I gotta get going, I'm meeting up with someone!?" she said she ran off in the direction of the town square, where most of the players would be meeting up with each other. Aki walked up to Makoto while looking in the direction Hinata was running on "do you have any idea who she is meeting up with?" Makoto chuckled a little bit before placing his hands on his hips "I might have one but I know she'll tell me about him and her feelings for him when the time is right..." as he said that he had a gentle and proud smile on his face and as a breeze blew by. And Hinata ran as fast she could, even though she and Klein didn't specifically set a time to meet just that it would be around the time in the afternoon just before the sun would set. "Just barely made it..." said Hinata as she had reached the center point of the town square trying to catch her breath, having placed both of her hands on her knees hunching over as soon as she looked back up, she could see a few pairs of happy couples which had her own heart beat just a bit faster just on thought of Klein and her being a couple like everyone else...

* * *

Meanwhile, in a field looking area, that looked like it had a few fences forming a road people could walk on, was Klein and his friends talking about the information they got about forming a guild "okay we all agree on Klein to be our guild leader once we reach the 3rd floor? say Aye" said Klein's closets friend going by the in-game name " _Dynamm", a guy who would wear his bandana fully around his head hiding his short hair under there,_ and with four sounding " _Aye's!_ ", Klein chuckled and thanking his friends to name him as their leader before looking at the color of the sky "Oh shoot!? Sorry guys, I'll see you back at the inn!? I'm meeting up with someone!?" he said as he lightly ran off while hearing replies from his friends like "you got it, boss!" and "see ya!" with one of them saying "got a date or something~", as he tripped a bit before setting off in a sprint his cheeks getting a bit flushed and he thought "seriously she is just a girl and nothing much...she is a cute looking girl...n-no don't think of Hinata like that!?" , upon getting to the end of the street that leads to the town square, catching his breath real quick before looking around for Hinata and his eyes fell upon and familiar red ribbon and he lightly jogged over to her "Hey Hinata, I hope I didn't make you wait for too long.." he apologized.

She shakes her head "no you didn't, I thought I was the one who made you wait" she chuckled rubbing the back of her neck, a tiny blush grew on her cheeks, Klein found it cute to see her like that and he couldn't help but smile at her and well a blush on his own. "So are you ready to hang out with me?" he asked, Hinata nodded "yeah, just out of my own curiosity where are we going or heading to?" tilting her a bit to the right making Klein's cheeks getting a bit flushed before he chuckled "well how about we buy something to eat and find a place to..watch the sunset" his cheek got more as he scratched his cheek and looked away a bit, Hinata felt her heart skip a bit before replying "sure, that sounds like a good idea, Klein" and gave him a smile. They went to a stall getting some sandwiches and some sort of juice, there was still time for them to get to a spot to sit at and watch the sunset "this spot seems nice enough for us, Hinata" he said turning to look at her, "yeah, it really seems like a good place. Nice spot you found, Klein" she nodded and smiled a bit at him, he chuckled while rubbing the back of his neck.

They both sat there talking about how guilds are made and they talked about normal things they do or did in the real world "so Hinata what do you do out sided of this game?" he asked while taking a bite of his sandwich, she was a bit nervous in telling about her fathers company to anyone. "Well... I work for my father at his company...", "oh a rich girl, you probably live in a big house and can get whatever you wa-", "since my father wants me to take over for him at the company..." she interrupted Klein from finishing his sentence, the tone in her voice sounded a bit sad. She continued "and I do want too...it's just...", "you want to be seen like everyone else, right?" he asked, his voice sounded both concerns and a bit sadness not for himself but Hinata. She turned her head to face him, so she could hear what else he had to say "well in the short time we have known each other, I've seen a kind natured girl, who cares about any and everyone. And there is still more sides of you, for me to get know..." he blushed a bit before continuing "If we still can hang out like this...".

Hinata was taken aback, a bit even if it feels like that it's going to fast for her and that they've only known each other for a week, she just couldn't let still warm feeling in her chest that he is giving her. She gently smiled at him "of course, Klein. I would love to hang out with you whenever we got the time to" a breeze blew by and had Hinata's hair floated in the wind, her hair shown as the suns rays hit her hair as it seemed like time had stopped for the both of them and the leaves in the tree whistled. Klein looked at her as he could hear his heart beat faster, his cheeks got a bit more flushed and he said "that makes me happy hear that Hinata..." as he smiled back to her.

* * *

As they were walking back to town, their hands lightly touched each other and both of their cheeks blushed. Being a bit shy, Hinata glanced at Klein while saying "I don't mind holding hands with you, Klein...", "o-okay..." he stuttered, cheeks flushed as they wrapped their fingers together and held each other's hands, they would while walking smile at each other. Even if they were quiet, upon getting to the inn where Hinata and her brother were staying at "well this is my stop" she looked at Klein "you are staying at a different inn in town, right?" she asked and he nodded "yeah me and my friends have to share rooms with each other but there is nothing with it. I'm used to sharing a room with one of my friends since we went to the same school for a long time...". They let go of each other's hands "w-well I should probably get going inside, my big brother is waiting for me..." said Hinata and Klein rubbing the back of his neck while stuttering "y-yeah we wouldn't want to keep him waiting" he laughed as he turned around to get to the inn he was staying at, as he started to walk he said "I'll see you around, Hinata...".

Before he could turn the little corner, a friend request popped "what the?" he turned around and saw Hinata smiling gently at him and in front of her was the menu with the screen saying " _ **Friend Request Sent**_ ", "let's stay in touch, Klein" said Hinata while having both of her hands placed on her chest, her cheeks having tiny tint of pink to them. Klein blushed a bit while trying to find his words, taking a deep breath before pushing the yes "accept" button and looked at her, smiling at her and trying to look cool in front of her "I'd really like that, Hinata" they both laughed in unison and said their goodbyes. As Hinata got inside of the inn, she was meet with her brother, arms crossed "so are you two now dating?" he asked, "pft?! wha!? n-no...I don't know...all I know is that my heart beats faster when I'm around him..." she looked at Makoto to which he sighed "well those are one of the signs, Hina. Now let's get to bed, we got a lot of leveling in the morning with Aki and Touma" she nodded. At the same moment, she received a message from Asuna, asking if she could join them in their leveling schedule, Makoto replied to Asuna and gave her the coordinates of where they were going to train at.

Makoto showed Hinata to her Inn room, saying goodnight to each other, Hinata changed into a relaxed outfit and sat down on the bed, opening her menu up and began to write a message to Klein, hoping he will have a good night and sleep well. Getting a reply nothing more than a few seconds after she sent it to him and in the reply, he called her "my lady" which made her heart skip a beat, closing her menu, getting under the blanket and going to sleep with a smile on her face. Hoping for a brighter day in the coming morning.


End file.
